Information delivery system for mobile communication using location, date, and time information

ABSTRACT

There is provided an information delivery apparatus including a receiving portion to receive location information of a mobile communication terminal at a given time and acquired date and time of the location information from the terminal, an event information storage portion to store event information including an event place, date and time, a delivery terminal selecting portion to select the mobile communication terminal to which the event information is to be delivered based on the location information and the acquired date and time of the location information and on the event place, date and time, and an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information to the selected mobile communication terminal. The delivery terminal selecting portion selects the mobile communication terminal whose location indicated by location information is within a predetermined range and whose acquired date and time of the location information are before the event date and time.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese PatentApplication JP 2007-236722 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Sep. 12,2007, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an information delivery apparatus, aninformation receiving apparatus, an information delivery method, aninformation receiving method, and an information delivery system.

2. Description of the Related Art

There has been a technique that delivers an advertisement to a mobilecommunication terminal such as a cellular phone when the terminal existsin a particular area such as near an advertiser's store. Further, therehas been invented a method of registering an attribute (e.g. age,gender, place of residence, occupation etc.) of a person to receive anadvertisement in advance, selecting a terminal having an attribute whichmatches an advertisement and delivering the advertisement to theterminal.

As an example of such an advertisement delivery technique, a musiccontent delivery system which delivers advertisement data to a portableterminal for playing back a music content is disclosed in JapaneseUnexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-56579, for example.In this system, when a portable terminal plays back a music content, theterminal receives advertisement data which is delivered from a nearbystore and plays back the advertisement data and the music content incombination, so that a user who listens to the music content views theadvertisement at the same time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the advertisement delivery method according to the above-describedrelated art, an advertisement is delivered based on a current locationof a terminal that is an advertisement delivery target. On the otherhand, there are cases where an advertiser wishes to deliver anadvertisement based not on the current location information but on thepast location information of a terminal. For example, if anadvertisement is for an event or the like which is held in apredetermined place on predetermined date and time, an advertisement isgenerally delivered prior to the date and time when the event is held.In such a case, it is desired to deliver the advertisement based on thepast location information of a terminal because those who have visitedthe place of the event before and those who visit the place of the eventor its vicinity on a regular basis are likely to visit the place again,even if they are not close to the place where the event is held at thetime of delivering the advertisement.

However, although an advertisement can be delivered based on the currentlocation of a terminal that is an advertisement delivery target in theadvertisement delivery method of the related art, an advertisementcannot be delivered based on the past location information of aterminal. It is therefore incapable of delivering an advertisement to auser who may come to an event in the case as above, which can lead tothe loss of a chance of an advertisement.

In light of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a novel andimproved information delivery apparatus, information receivingapparatus, information delivery method, information receiving method andinformation delivery system which are capable of delivering eventinformation by selecting a terminal of a user who is likely to come toan event, thereby improving advertising effects of event informationdelivery.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is providedan information delivery apparatus which includes a receiving portion toreceive location information of a mobile communication terminal at agiven time point and acquired date and time of the location informationfrom the mobile communication terminal, an event information storageportion to store event information including an event place, an eventdate and an event time of an event held in a predetermined place onpredetermined date and time, a delivery terminal selecting portion toselect a mobile communication terminal to which the event information isto be delivered based on the location information and the acquired dateand time of the location information received by the receiving portionand on the event place, the event date and the event time, and an eventinformation delivery portion to deliver the event information stored inthe event information storage portion to the mobile communicationterminal selected by the delivery terminal selecting portion. In theinformation delivery apparatus, the delivery terminal selecting portionselects the mobile communication terminal whose location indicated bythe location information is within a predetermined range defineddepending on the event place and whose acquired date and time of thelocation information are before the event date and time.

This configuration enables notification of the detail of the event orthe like to the mobile communication terminal of a user who has visitedthe event place or its vicinity before. It is thereby possible todeliver event information by selecting a user who is likely to come tothe event, which improves advertising effects of event informationdelivery.

The information delivery apparatus may further include an attributeinformation storage portion to store attribute information of a user ofthe mobile communication terminal, and the delivery terminal selectingportion may select the mobile communication terminal having theattribute information related to the event information from the selectedmobile communication terminal.

The delivery terminal selecting portion may select at most apredetermined number of mobile communication terminals.

The delivery terminal selecting portion may select the mobilecommunication terminal in increasing order of a time length from theacquired date and time of the location information within thepredetermined range defined depending on the event place to the eventdate and time.

The delivery terminal selecting portion may refrain from selecting themobile communication terminal if the distance between a current locationof the mobile communication terminal and the event place exceeds apredetermined value.

The delivery terminal selecting portion may calculate a travel time fromthe current location of the mobile communication terminal to the eventplace and refrain from selecting the mobile communication terminal ifthe calculated travel time is longer than the interval between currenttime and the event time.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information receiving apparatus which includes a locationinformation acquiring portion to acquire location information indicatinga current location, a location information storage portion to accumulateand store location information acquired by the location informationacquiring portion and acquired date and time of the locationinformation, an event information receiving portion to receive eventinformation including an event place, an event date and an event time ofan event held in a predetermined place on predetermined date and time,and an event information selecting portion to select the eventinformation to be notified to a user based on the location informationand the acquired date and time of the location information stored in thelocation information storage portion and on the event place, the eventdate and the event time included in the event information. In theinformation receiving apparatus, the event information selecting portionselects the event information if the location information stored in thelocation information storage portion is within a predetermined rangedefined depending on the event place and the acquired date and time ofthe location information are before the event date and time.

In this configuration, a terminal which receives information can referto its past location information and presents only related eventinformation to a user. This eliminates the need to notify locationinformation from a terminal to the information delivery apparatus,thereby reducing a communication traffic amount from the terminal andprocessing for the communication. This also eliminates the need to storelocation information of each terminal in an information delivering end,thereby reducing a storage area to be reserved.

The information receiving apparatus may further include an attributeinformation storage portion to store attribute information of a user,and the event information selecting portion may select the eventinformation related to the attribute information.

The event information selecting portion may refrain from selecting theevent information if the distance between the current location and theevent place exceeds a predetermined value.

The event information selecting portion may calculate a travel time fromthe current location to the event place and refrain from selecting theevent information if the calculated travel time is longer than theinterval between current time and the event time.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information delivery method which includes the steps ofreceiving location information of a mobile communication terminal at agiven time point and acquired date and time of the location informationfrom the mobile communication terminal, selecting the mobilecommunication terminal to which event information about an event is tobe delivered based on the location information and the acquired date andtime of the location information received in the receiving step and onan event place, an event date and en event time of the event held in apredetermined place on predetermined date and time, and delivering theevent information to the mobile communication terminal selected in theselecting step. In the information delivery method, the mobilecommunication terminal whose location indicated by the locationinformation is within a predetermined range defined depending on theevent place and whose acquired date and time of the location informationare before the event date and time is selected in the selecting step.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information receiving method which includes the steps ofacquiring location information indicating a current location, storingthe location information acquired in the acquiring step and acquireddate and time of the location information into a storage medium,receiving event information including an event place, an event date andan event time of an event held in a predetermined place on predetermineddate and time, and selecting the event information to be notified to auser based on the location information and the acquired date and time ofthe location information stored in the storage medium and on the eventplace, the event date and the event time included in the eventinformation. In the information receiving method, the event informationis selected in the selecting step if the location information stored inthe storage medium is within a predetermined range defined depending onthe event place and the acquired date and time of the locationinformation are before the event date and time.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information delivery system which includes an informationreceiving apparatus that acquires and supplies location information andan information delivery apparatus that delivers event information basedon the location information supplied by the information receivingapparatus. The information delivery apparatus includes a receivingportion to receive location information at a given time point andacquired date and time of the location information from the informationreceiving apparatus, an event information storage portion to store eventinformation including an event place, an event date and an event time ofan event held in a predetermined place on predetermined date and time, adelivery terminal selecting portion to select an information receivingapparatus to which the event information is to be delivered based on thelocation information and the acquired date and time of the locationinformation received by the receiving portion and on the event place,the event date and the event time, and an event information deliveryportion to deliver the event information stored in the event informationstorage portion to the information receiving apparatus selected by thedelivery terminal selecting portion, and the delivery terminal selectingportion selects the information receiving apparatus whose locationindicated by the location information is within a predetermined rangedefined depending on the event place and whose acquired date and time ofthe location information are before the event date and time.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information delivery system which includes an informationreceiving apparatus that acquires and accumulates location informationand an information delivery apparatus that delivers event informationabout an event held in a predetermined place on predetermined date andtime to the information receiving apparatus. The information receivingapparatus includes a location information acquiring portion to acquirelocation information indicating a current location, a locationinformation storage portion to accumulate and store location informationacquired by the location information acquiring portion and acquired dateand time of the location information, an event information receivingportion to receive event information including an event place, an eventdate and an event time of the event delivered by the informationdelivery apparatus, and an event information selecting portion to selectthe event information to be notified to a user based on the locationinformation and the acquired date and time of the location informationstored in the location information storage portion and on the eventplace, the event date and the event time included in the eventinformation, and the event information selecting portion selects theevent information if the location information stored in the locationinformation storage portion is within a predetermined range defineddepending on the event place and the acquired date and time of thelocation information are before the event date and time.

According to the embodiments of the present invention described above,it is possible to deliver event information by selecting a terminal of auser who is likely to come to an event, thereby improving advertisingeffects of event information delivery.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of aninformation delivery system according to a first embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information delivery apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information receiving apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information delivery processwhich is executed by the information delivery system according to thefirst embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information delivery apparatus according to a second embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information receiving apparatus according to the secondembodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information delivery processwhich is executed by an information delivery system according to thesecond embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information delivery apparatus according to a third embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information delivery processwhich is executed by an information delivery system according to thethird embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information delivery apparatus according to a fourth embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information receiving apparatus according to the fourthembodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information delivery processwhich is executed by an information delivery system according to thefourth embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information delivery apparatus according to a fifth embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information delivery processwhich is executed by an information delivery system according to thefifth embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof an information receiving apparatus according to a sixth embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a flow of a reminder display processwhich is executed by an information delivery system according to thesixth embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in detail with reference to the appended drawings. Note thatin this specification and the appended drawings, structural elementsthat have substantially the same functions and structures are denotedwith the same reference numerals and a repeated explanation of thesestructural elements is omitted.

First Embodiment

Referring first to FIG. 1, an information delivery system according to afirst embodiment of the present invention is described hereinafter. FIG.1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an informationdelivery system according to the first embodiment of the presentinvention. As shown in FIG. 1, an information delivery system 100according to the first embodiment is composed of an information deliveryapparatus 120 and an information receiving apparatus 140.

The information receiving apparatus 140 is a portable informationterminal which has a communication function such as a cellular phone anda personal digital assistant (PDA), for example. The informationreceiving apparatus 140 receives event information which is deliveredfrom the information delivery apparatus 120 and displays the receivedevent information on a display portion such as LCD. Further, theinformation receiving apparatus 140 acquires location information whichindicates its current location from a GPS satellite 12 or a base station14 that is installed by a cellular phone carrier and supplies thereceived location information and information about an acquired time tothe information delivery apparatus 120.

The information delivery apparatus 120 delivers event information at anadvertiser's request to one or more information receiving apparatus 140.Although FIG. 1 illustrates one information receiving apparatus 140 forsimplification of description, there may be a plurality of informationreceiving apparatus 140. The event information which is delivered by theinformation delivery apparatus 120 is information about an event that isheld in a predetermined place on predetermined date and time, and itincludes information about the date and time and the place when andwhere the event is held, information about the detail of the event, andinformation about delivery of the event information. The informationdelivery apparatus 120 receives location information and informationabout acquired date and time of the location information from theinformation receiving apparatus 140 and compares the receivedinformation with the information about the place and the date and timeof the event, thereby determining whether to deliver the eventinformation to the information receiving apparatus 140.

In the information delivery system 100 of such a configuration, anadvertiser which holds an event can deliver event information based onlocation information that is transmitted from a cellular phone or thelike of each user. The advertiser can thereby deliver information byselecting a user who is likely to come to the event, thus increasingadvertising effects.

Referring next to FIG. 2, functions which are implemented by theinformation delivery apparatus 120 according to this embodiment aredescribed hereinafter. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing aschematic configuration of the information delivery apparatus 120according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the information delivery apparatus 120 includes alocation information receiving portion 122, a location informationstorage portion 124, an event information storage portion 126, adelivery terminal selecting portion 128, and an event informationdelivery portion 130. The location information receiving portion 122,the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 and the event informationdelivery portion 130 may be implemented by installing software programfor executing the functions of those portions into the informationdelivery apparatus 120 or may be implemented using dedicated hardware.Further, the software program may be executed by reading out the programstored in a computer-readable storage medium or may be provided to theinformation delivery apparatus 120 through a network or the like. Thelocation information storage portion 124 and the event informationstorage portion 126 may be configured by a storage medium such assemiconductor memory, an optical disk and a magnetic disk, for example.

The location information receiving portion 122 receives locationinformation and acquired date and time of the location information whichare transmitted from the information receiving apparatus 140. Thelocation information may be information about the latitude, longitudeand altitude of the information receiving apparatus 140 at a certainpoint, information indicating the area where the information receivingapparatus 140 exists and so on. The location information storage portion124 stores the location information and the information about theacquired date and time of the location information which are received bythe location information receiving portion 122 and the information aboutthe information receiving apparatus 140 in association with each other.

The event information storage portion 126 is a storage portion forstoring information (event information) about an event which is held ina predetermined place on predetermined date and time. Event informationmay be provided by an advertiser which requests the delivery of eventinformation and input to the information delivery apparatus 120 througha network or the like, for example. Event information includesinformation about the place and the date and time of an event,information indicating the detail of an event, a period of deliveringevent information, a range of delivery terminal location of eventinformation, a condition of delivering event information and so on.Information indicating the detail of an event may be information such asa title of an event, a schedule of an event, text or image dataindicating the detail of an event and a discount ticket for an event,for example.

A range of delivery terminal location of event information is defined inorder to determine whether to deliver event information to a terminal(information receiving apparatus 140) of each user, and, if locationinformation which is transmitted from a terminal is included in thedefined range, event information is delivered to the terminal. A rangeof delivery terminal location may be a certain distance range from anevent place where an event is held or a certain distance range from thenearest station of an event place, for example. A range of deliveryterminal location may not include an event place. A condition ofdelivering event information is a keyword for narrowing down users towhom event information is to be delivered, attribute information (e.g.age, gender, place of residence, interest etc.) of users who aredelivery targets, and so on.

The delivery terminal selecting portion 128 selects the informationreceiving apparatus 140 to which event information that is stored in theevent information storage portion 126 is to be delivered based onlocation information of the information receiving apparatus 140 andacquired date and time of the location information that are received bythe location information receiving portion 122. Specifically, thedelivery terminal selecting portion 128 refers to a range of deliveryterminal location of event information which is stored in the eventinformation storage portion 126 and determines whether locationinformation of each information receiving apparatus 140 which is storedin the location information storage portion 124 falls within that range.If there is location information that falls within the range of deliveryterminal location, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128determines whether acquired date and time of the location information isbefore the date and time when an event is held, and if it is before theevent date and time, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 selectsthe relevant information receiving apparatus 140 as a delivery terminalof event information. The event information delivery portion 130delivers event information to the information receiving apparatus 140which is selected by the delivery terminal selecting portion 128.

The delivery terminal selecting portion 128 may select all of theinformation receiving apparatus 140 of which past location informationfalls within a range of delivery terminal location or may limits thenumber of the information receiving apparatus 140 to be selected (e.g.to 100). At this time, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 mayselect the information receiving apparatus 140 sequentially inincreasing order of a time length from the acquired date and time oflocation information within a range of delivery terminal location to thecurrent date and time. It is thereby possible to deliver eventinformation preferentially to a user who has visited the place of anevent most recently to the time of delivering the event information.

Referring then to FIG. 3, functions which are implemented by theinformation receiving apparatus 140 according to this embodiment aredescribed hereinafter. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing aschematic configuration of the information receiving apparatus 140according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the information receiving apparatus 140 includes alocation information acquiring portion 142, a location informationstorage portion 144, a location information transmitting portion 146, anevent information receiving portion 148, a display portion 150, and anevent information storage portion 152. The location informationacquiring portion 142, the location information transmitting portion 146and the event information receiving portion 148 may be implemented byinstalling software program for executing the functions of thoseportions into the information receiving apparatus 140 or may beimplemented using dedicated hardware. Further, the software program maybe executed by reading out the program stored in a computer-readablestorage medium or may be provided to the information receiving apparatus140 through a network or the like. The location information storageportion 144 and the event information storage portion 152 may beconfigured by a storage medium such as semiconductor memory, an opticaldisk and a magnetic disk, for example. The display portion 150 may beconfigured by a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD).

The location information acquiring portion 142 acquires locationinformation which indicates its current location from the GPS satellite12 or the base station 14 that is installed by a cellular phone carrier.The location information may be acquired periodically at regular timeintervals or may be acquired at irregular timings such as when theinformation receiving apparatus 140 goes through a predetermined place(e.g. a station, a building serving as a landmark of an area etc.).Acquired location information and acquired date and time of the locationinformation are stored into the location information storage portion 144and then transmitted to the information delivery apparatus 120 by thelocation information transmitting portion 146. Alternatively, locationinformation and information about acquired date and time may be supplieddirectly from the location information acquiring portion 142 to thelocation information transmitting portion 146 and transmitted to theinformation delivery apparatus 120.

The event information receiving portion 148 receives event informationwhich is transmitted from the information delivery apparatus 120 andmakes it display on the display portion 150. The event information whichis received by the event information receiving portion 148 may be storedinto the event information storage portion 152 so that it is accumulatedin the information receiving apparatus 140.

Referring further to FIG. 4, an information delivery process which isexecuted by the information delivery system 100 according to thisembodiment is described hereinafter. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing aflow of the information delivery process which is executed by theinformation delivery system 100 according to the first embodiment of thepresent invention. In FIG. 4, the steps S200 to S206 are a locationinformation notification process from the information receivingapparatus 140 to the information delivery apparatus 120, and the stepsS208 to S212 are an information delivery process in the informationdelivery apparatus 120.

First, the location information acquiring portion 142 of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 acquires location information which indicatesits current location from the GPS satellite 12 or the base station 14(step S200). Next, the acquired location information and the acquireddata and time of the location information are stored into the locationinformation storage portion 144 (step S202). The location informationwhich is stored in the location information storage portion 144 istransmitted by the location information transmitting portion 146 to theinformation delivery apparatus 120 at regular time intervals, forexample (step S204). The information receiving apparatus 140 performsthe processing of the steps S200 to S204 repeatedly and transmits theacquired location information sequentially to the information deliveryapparatus 120.

On the other hand, the information delivery apparatus 120 receiveslocation information from the information receiving apparatus 140 andstores it into the location information storage portion 124 (step S206).Then, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 of the informationdelivery apparatus 120 compares location information of each informationreceiving apparatus 140 which is stored in the location informationstorage portion 124 with a range of delivery terminal location of eventinformation and determines whether there is location information whichis included in the range (step S208). For example, if an event is heldin “Shinjuku” and a range of delivery terminal location is “the areawithin a distance of 500 meters from Shinjuku Station”, the informationreceiving apparatus 140 for which the location information at the pointwithin a distance of 500 meters from Shinjuku Station has been recordedin the past corresponds thereto.

If there is corresponding location information in the step S208, theacquired date and time of the location information are compared with thetime when the event is held, and it is determined whether the locationinformation acquired date and time are earlier than the event time (stepS210). If this determination condition is satisfied, the deliveryterminal selecting portion 128 selects the information receivingapparatus 140 having the relevant location information as a deliveryterminal, and the event information delivery portion 130 delivers theevent information to the selected information receiving apparatus 140(step S212). The event information is not delivered to the informationreceiving apparatus 140 which do not satisfy the determination conditionin the step S208 or the step S210.

In such a process, the detail of an event or the like can be notified toa portable terminal of a user who has visited a certain area, such asthe place where the event is held or its vicinity, in the past. It isthereby possible to deliver event information by selecting users who arelikely to come to the event, which improves advertising effects of eventinformation delivery.

Further, when acquired date and time of location information which isstored in the location information storage portion 124 of theinformation delivery apparatus 120 becomes a predetermined past time(e.g. two weeks before the current date and time), the locationinformation may be eliminated from the location information storageportion 124. This limits location information to be used for deliveryterminal selection within a predetermined past time period, therebyavoiding reference to old location information.

Furthermore, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 may count thenumber of the information receiving apparatus 140 which satisfy thecondition after the step S210 and limits the number of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 to be selected to no more than a certain number(e.g. 10). This allows grasping of the maximum number of terminals towhich event information is to be delivered in advance, thus offeringadvantages such as keeping advertising costs within a certain limit toan advertiser which requests delivery of event information. In thiscase, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 may select theinformation receiving apparatus 140 sequentially in decreasing order ofrecency of the acquired date and time of the location information whichsatisfies the condition, for example. This enables delivery of eventinformation preferentially to a user who has visited the place recentlyto the time of delivering the advertisement, which is, a user who ismore likely to come to the event.

Although the first embodiment has described that the delivery terminalselecting portion 128 selects delivery terminals depending on whetherthe past location information which is transmitted from the informationreceiving apparatus 140 falls within a range of delivery terminallocation of event information, it may further narrow down deliveryterminals using information different from location information afterselecting delivery terminals by the above-described method.

For example, each information receiving apparatus 140 may previouslyregister attribute information, such as an age, gender, place ofresidence, interest and occupation, of a user into the informationdelivery apparatus 120, and the delivery terminal selecting portion 128of the information delivery apparatus 120 may compare the attributeinformation with information about a delivery condition which isincluded in event information and select the information receivingapparatus 140 of a user who has the attribute information that matchesthe delivery condition as a delivery terminal.

Second Embodiment

A second embodiment of the present invention describes the case wherethe information delivery apparatus 120 selects a delivery terminal usinginformation that is different from location information of theinformation receiving apparatus 140. FIG. 5 is a functional blockdiagram showing an example of the information delivery apparatus 120which selects a delivery terminal using information that is differentfrom location information of the information receiving apparatus 140.FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing an example of theinformation receiving apparatus 140 which registers attributeinformation into the information delivery apparatus 120 in advance. InFIGS. 5 and 6, the functional portions which correspond to those shownin FIGS. 2 and 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and thedescription of those are omitted as appropriate in order to avoidredundant description.

The information delivery apparatus 120 shown in FIG. 5 is different fromthe information delivery apparatus 120 shown in FIG. 2 in that itfurther includes an attribute information storage portion 132 andnarrows down terminals to which event information is to be deliveredwith use of attribute information of each information receivingapparatus 140 which is stored in the attribute information storageportion 132. Further, the information receiving apparatus 140 shown inFIG. 6 is different from the information receiving apparatus 140 shownin FIG. 3 in that it further includes an attribute informationregistering portion 154 and registers attribute information of a userinto the information delivery apparatus 120 in advance.

The attribute information registering portion 154 of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 transmits data of user attribute informationwhich is input through an input portion such as a keyboard, a mouse or amicrophone (not shown) that is equipped with the information receivingapparatus 140 or transmitted to the information receiving apparatus 140through a network to the information delivery apparatus 120 forregistration. User attribute information may be information such as age,gender, place of residence, occupation, interest and preference of auser. The information delivery apparatus 120 receives data of attributeinformation which is transmitted by the attribute informationregistering portion 154 of the information receiving apparatus 140 andstores it into the attribute information storage portion 132 inassociation with information indicating each information receivingapparatus 140 (e.g. ID, user name etc.).

The information delivery apparatus 120 according to this embodiment isdifferent from the information delivery apparatus 120 according to thefirst embodiment in that the delivery terminal selecting portion 128selects delivery terminals based on location information of theinformation receiving apparatus 140 and further narrows down deliveryterminals using attribute information of each information receivingapparatus 140 which is stored in the attribute information storageportion 132. The delivery terminal selecting portion 128 compares theattribute information of the information receiving apparatus 140 whichis stored in the attribute information storage portion 132 withinformation about a delivery condition which is included in eventinformation and selects the information receiving apparatus 140 whichhas the attribute information that matches the delivery condition as adelivery terminal, in addition to performing the function of thedelivery terminal selecting portion 128 according to the firstembodiment. For example, when the condition that “user's age is 20's or30's” is designated as a delivery condition of event information, if thevalue of an age which is registered as attribute information of theinformation receiving apparatus 140 is 20 to 39, the delivery terminalselecting portion 128 selects the information receiving apparatus 140 asa delivery terminal, and if not, it does not select the informationreceiving apparatus 140 as a delivery terminal.

Referring then to FIG. 7, an information delivery process in the case ofusing the information delivery apparatus 120 of FIG. 5 and theinformation receiving apparatus 140 of FIG. 6 is described hereinafter.FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information delivery processwhich is executed by the information delivery system 100 according tothe second embodiment of the present invention.

First, the information receiving apparatus 140 registers user attributeinformation into the information delivery apparatus 120 in advance (stepS220). Next, the information receiving apparatus 140 periodicallynotifies its location information to the information delivery apparatus120 by the processing in the steps S222 to S228. The processing in thesteps S222 to S228 is the same as the processing in the steps S200 toS206 shown in FIG. 4 and thus not described in detail herein.

Then, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 of the informationdelivery apparatus 120 compares the location information of eachinformation receiving apparatus 140 with a range of delivery terminallocation of event information and selects terminals (informationreceiving apparatus) to which event information is to be delivered bythe processing in the steps S230 to S232. The processing in the stepsS230 to S232 is the same as the processing in the steps S208 to S210shown in FIG. 4.

Further, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 compares theattribute information of each information receiving apparatus 140 whichis selected by the steps S230 to S232 with a delivery condition of eventinformation (step S234). If the attribute information which isregistered in the attribute information storage portion 132 matches thedelivery condition, the relevant information receiving apparatus 140 isselected as a delivery terminal, and the event information is deliveredthereto (step S236). It is thereby possible to deliver the eventinformation by narrowing down persons who are likely to be interested inthe event from those who have visited the designated place, whichfurther improve advertising effects of the event information.

Although the information delivery apparatus 120 selects a deliveryterminal based on the past location information of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 in the first and second embodiments describedabove, it may select a delivery terminal using the current locationinformation in addition to the past location information. For example,even if a user of a terminal has visited an event place in the past, theinformation delivery apparatus 120 may refrain from selecting theterminal when it has been moved far away from the place at the time ofdelivering event information.

Third Embodiment

A third embodiment of the present invention describes an example of theinformation delivery system in which the information delivery apparatus120 selects a delivery terminal using the current location information,in addition to the past location information, of the informationreceiving apparatus 140. FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing anexample of the information delivery apparatus 120 which selects adelivery terminal with use of the current location information, inaddition to the past location information, of the information receivingapparatus 140. In FIG. 8, the functional portions which correspond tothose shown in FIG. 2 or 5 are denoted by the same reference numerals,and the description of those are omitted as appropriate in order toavoid redundant description.

The information delivery apparatus 120 shown in FIG. 8 is different fromthe information delivery apparatus 120 shown in FIG. 2 or 5 in that itfurther includes a location information requesting portion 134 whichrequests information about a current location to the informationreceiving apparatus 140, so that the delivery terminal selecting portion128 selects a delivery terminal using the current location information,in addition to the past location information, of the informationreceiving apparatus 140. After the delivery terminal selecting portion128 selects delivery terminals by performing the processing in the samemanner as the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 of the firstembodiment or the second embodiment described above, it makes thelocation information requesting portion 134 request current locationinformation to the information receiving apparatus 140 and receives thecurrent location information of the information receiving apparatus 140.The delivery terminal selecting portion 128 then compares the currentlocation of the information receiving apparatus 140 with informationabout a place where an event is held which is included in eventinformation, and, if a distance between the current location and theevent place is equal to or longer than a predetermined threshold, thedelivery terminal selecting portion 128 does not select the relevantinformation receiving apparatus 140 as a delivery terminal. In thisconfiguration, even if a user has visited an event place in the past,when the user is far away from the event place at the time of deliveringevent information (for example, when the event is held in Tokyo and theuser is in Kagoshima prefecture), it is possible to judge that the useris not likely to come to the event and refrain from transmitting theevent information to the user.

Referring next to FIG. 9, an information delivery process in the case ofusing the information delivery apparatus 120 of FIG. 8 is describedhereinafter. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of an informationdelivery process which is executed by the information delivery system100 according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In FIG.9, the processing in the steps S240 to S250 is substantially the same asthe processing in the steps S200 to S210 shown in FIG. 4 and thus notdescribed in detail herein.

After selecting the information receiving apparatus 140 to which eventinformation is to be delivered by the processing in the steps S248 toS250, the location information requesting portion 134 of the informationdelivery apparatus 120 requests each information receiving apparatus 140to transmit location information indicating a current location (stepS252). Then, the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 compares thecurrent location information of each information receiving apparatus 140which is acquired by the step S252 with the event place which isincluded in the event information and determines whether the informationreceiving apparatus 140 exists within a predetermined distance from theevent place (step S254). The determination may be performed using aphysical distance between the current location of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 and the event place, or using a travel distanceor a necessary travel time by calculating a time needed to travel fromthe current location of the information receiving apparatus 140 to theevent place.

If the determination processing in the step S254 determines that thedistance is equal to or shorter than a predetermined length, the eventinformation delivery portion 130 of the information delivery apparatus120 delivers event information to the relevant information receivingapparatus 140 (step S256). On the other hand, if the distance is longerthan the predetermined length, the event information delivery portion130 does not deliver event information to the relevant informationreceiving apparatus 140.

In such a process, even if a person has visited a place where an eventis held in the past, when the user is far away from the event place atthe time of delivering information, it is possible to refrain fromdelivering event information to the person. It is thereby possible todeliver event information by excluding a person who is less likely tocome to the event.

Although the information delivery apparatus 120 which delivers eventinformation selects the information receiving apparatus 140 to whichevent information is to be delivered and delivers the event informationthereto in the first to third embodiments described above, theinformation receiving apparatus 140 which receives event information maysort out the event information to be shown to a user depending on itslocation information.

Fourth Embodiment

A fourth embodiment of the present invention describes an example of theinformation delivery system in which the information receiving apparatus140 filters event information which is delivered by the informationdelivery apparatus 120 and divides the event information intoinformation to be notified to a user and information not to be notifiedto a user. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a schematicconfiguration of the information delivery apparatus 120 according to thefourth embodiment. FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram showing aschematic configuration of the information receiving apparatus 140according to the fourth embodiment. In FIGS. 10 and 11, the functionalportions which correspond to those shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are denoted bythe same reference numerals, and the description of those are omitted asappropriate in order to avoid redundant description.

As shown in FIG. 10, the information delivery apparatus 120 according tothis embodiment is different from the information delivery apparatus 120according to the first to third embodiments described above in that itdoes not include the elements such as the location information receivingportion 122 and the delivery terminal selecting portion 128 forselecting a terminal to which event information is to be delivered. Theinformation delivery apparatus 120 transmits event information which isstored in the event information storage portion 126 to all of theinformation receiving apparatus 140 which are registered beforehand.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 11, the information receivingapparatus 140 according to this embodiment is different from theinformation receiving apparatus 140 according to the first to thirdembodiments in that it further includes an event information selectingportion 156 so as to select event information to be displayed on thedisplay portion 150 from the event information which is transmitted fromthe information delivery apparatus 120. The event information selectingportion 156 compares the place and the time of each event informationwhich is received by the event information receiving portion 148 withthe past location information which is stored in the locationinformation storage portion 144 and determines whether to display eachevent information on the display portion 150.

Specifically, the event information selecting portion 156 refers to anevent place included in event information which is stored in the eventinformation storage portion 152 and determines whether there is locationinformation which is stored in the location information storage portion144 and which falls within a predetermined range from the event place.If there is such location information, the event information selectingportion 156 further determines whether the acquired date and time of thelocation information is before the date and time when the event is heldand, if so, it displays the relevant event information on the displayportion 150. Event information which is not displayed on the displayportion 150 may be discarded or stored into the event informationstorage portion 152 together with the displayed event information.

The event information selecting portion 156 may further narrow down theevent information to be displayed based on attribute information such asuser's gender, age and interest or the current location of theinformation receiving apparatus 140, just like the information deliveryapparatus 120 according to the second and third embodiments.

Referring next to FIG. 12, an information delivery process in the caseof using the information delivery apparatus 120 of FIG. 10 and theinformation receiving apparatus 140 of FIG. 11 is described hereinafter.FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information delivery processwhich is executed by the information delivery system 100 according tothe fourth embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 12, the processing in the steps S260 to S262 is substantiallythe same as the processing in the steps S200 to S202 shown in FIG. 4 andthus not described in detail herein. The information delivery apparatus120 transmits event information to the information receiving apparatus140 at given timing (step S264). Receiving the event information, theinformation receiving apparatus 140 compares a range of deliveryterminal location of event information or an event place with locationinformation which is stored in the location information storage portion144 and determines whether there is location information which fallswithin the range that is defined by the event information (step S266).

If there is location information which falls within the range, theinformation receiving apparatus 140 compares the acquired date and timeof the relevant location information with the time when the event isheld and determines whether the location information acquired date andtime is before the event time (step S268). If this condition issatisfied, the event information which is transmitted from theinformation delivery apparatus 120 in the step S264 is displayed on thedisplay portion 150 of the information receiving apparatus 140. If thecondition is not satisfied in the step S266 and the step S268, the eventinformation is not displayed on the display portion 150.

In this manner, it is feasible that an event information delivering enddoes not filter delivery destination terminals at the time of deliveringevent information and an event information receiving end filters thereceived event information. In this configuration, a terminal whichreceives information can refer to its past location information andpresents only related event information to a user. This eliminates theneed to supply location information from a terminal to an informationdelivery apparatus, thereby reducing a communication traffic amount fromthe terminal and processing for the communication. This also eliminatesthe need to store location information of each terminal in aninformation delivering end, thereby reducing a storage area to bereserved.

An example of the information delivery system in which the informationdelivery apparatus 120 selects the information receiving apparatus 140to which event information is to be delivered based on the past locationinformation of the information receiving apparatus 140 is described inthe first to third embodiments described earlier. Further, an example ofthe information delivery system in which the selection processing basedon the past location information of the information receiving apparatus140 is performed in a receiving end is described in the fourthembodiment described above. In the followings, an example of theinformation delivery system in which event information is transmitted asa reminder at the latest possible time before an event time based on thecurrent location of the information receiving apparatus 140 is describedas a method for enhancing the advertising effects of event informationdelivery to the information receiving apparatus 140.

Fifth Embodiment

A fifth embodiment of the present invention describes an example of theinformation delivery system in which the information delivery apparatus120 transmits event information as a reminder at the latest possibletime before an event time. FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram showinga schematic configuration of the information delivery apparatus 120according to the fifth embodiment. In FIG. 13, the functional portionswhich correspond to those of the information delivery apparatus 120shown in FIG. 2 and so on are denoted by the same reference numerals,and the description of those are omitted as appropriate in order toavoid redundant description. The information receiving apparatus 140according to this embodiment has substantially the same configuration asthe information receiving apparatus 140 according to the first to thirdembodiments described above and not described in detail herein.

As shown in FIG. 13, the information delivery apparatus 120 according tothe fifth embodiment further includes a travel time calculating portion136 and a delivery time determining portion 138 in addition to theelements of the information delivery apparatus 120 according to thefirst embodiment shown in FIG. 2. The information delivery apparatus 120of this embodiment transmits event information as a reminder to theinformation receiving apparatus 140 that is determined as a deliveryterminal to which event information is to be transmitted by the sameprocessing as in the information delivery apparatus 120 of the first tothird embodiments at the latest possible time before an event time whenan event is held. Further, the information delivery apparatus 120determines a time to transmit event information by checking the currentlocation of each information receiving apparatus 140 and calculating atime needed to travel from the current location to an event place wherethe event is held, so that a user who receives the reminder can reachthe event place by the event time.

The information receiving apparatus 140 of this embodiment acquireslocation information indicating its current location periodically andtransmits the location information to the information delivery apparatus120 each time it acquires the information. The information deliveryapparatus 120 receives the location information of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 by the location information receiving portion122 and, if it is the information receiving apparatus 140 that is atarget of transmitting a reminder, the information delivery apparatus120 calculates a time to transmit a reminder by the travel timecalculating portion 136 and the delivery time determining portion 138.

The travel time calculating portion 136 receives location information ofthe information receiving apparatus 140 from the location informationreceiving portion 122 and calculates a travel time from the place whichis indicated by the location information to the event place which isincluded in the event information. A travel time may be obtained bycalculating a necessary time from the nearest station of the currentlocation of the information receiving apparatus 140 to the neareststation of an event place, a necessary time to each nearest station andso on using route search technology of a public transportation, anexpressway or the like. A calculated necessary travel time may be one,or, if there are a plurality of possible travel routes, a plurality oftravel times may be calculated corresponding thereto.

The delivery time determining portion 138 determines a time to deliverevent information (reminder) based on a travel time which is calculatedby the travel time calculating portion 136 and an event time. A deliverytime may be set so that an interval between the delivery time and theevent time is at least equal to the travel time. Alternatively, adelivery time may be set so that an interval between the delivery timeand the event time is longer than the necessary travel time in order toallow an extra time. For example, if an event time is 14:00 and a traveltime which is calculated by the travel time calculating portion 136 is 1hour, the delivery time determining portion 138 may set a delivery timeto 13:00 or to 12:30 with extra 30 minutes.

If a plurality of travel times are calculated by the travel timecalculating portion 136, a delivery time may be determined based on thelongest or shortest travel time or based on the average of the pluralityof travel times. Further, it is feasible to refrain from transmitting areminder if a travel time is equal to or longer than a certain value.For example, if a travel time from the current location is 2 hours orlonger, a reminder may not be transmitted on the assumption that it isless likely to come to the event.

Furthermore, it is feasible to refrain from transmitting a reminder tothe information receiving apparatus 140 to which the reminder has beentransmitted once. For example, if an event time is 14:00 and a traveltime which is calculated at 11:00 is 2 hours, for example, a reminderdelivery time is determined to be 12:00, so that the first reminder istransmitted at 12:00. After that, a travel time is calculated againbased on the location information which is received at 12:30, and if thecalculated travel time is 1 hour, a reminder delivery time is set to13:00, so that the second reminder is transmitted at 13:00. In order toremove the burden that a user receives a reminder again and again insuch a case, the calculation of a delivery time by the travel timecalculating portion 136 and the delivery time determining portion 138may not be performed for the information receiving apparatus 140 towhich the reminder has been transmitted once.

In the above description, an “event time” may be a start time or an endtime of an event. Alternatively, it may be a particular time during anevent being held. For example, if the most principal part of an eventwhich is held from 13:00 to 18:00 is performed at 15:00, an “event time”may be set to 15:00, and a reminder may be delivered so that a user cancome to the event by 15:00. Alternatively, a plurality of “event times”may be set for one event, and a reminder may be delivered in accordancewith the nearest “event time”.

When an “event time” is set to an event end time, for example, there isa possibility that a reminder will be transmitted to a user who has cometo the event already. To avoid this, it is feasible to refrain fromtransmitting event information as a reminder to the informationreceiving apparatus 140 which comes to the event place or its vicinityduring the period by referring to location information of eachinformation receiving apparatus 140 during the period when the event isheld.

Referring next to FIG. 14, an information delivery process in the caseof using the information delivery apparatus 120 of FIG. 13 is describedhereinafter. FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a flow of an informationdelivery process which is executed by the information delivery system100 according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

First, the information delivery apparatus 120 receives locationinformation indicating a current location from the information receivingapparatus 140 (step S280). The location information may be transmittedfrom the information receiving apparatus 140 at regular time intervals,for example.

Next, the travel time calculating portion 136 of the informationdelivery apparatus 120 calculates a time needed to travel from thecurrent location of the information receiving apparatus 140 to the eventplace based on the location information which is received in the stepS280 (step S282). Then, the delivery time determining portion 138 of theinformation delivery apparatus 120 determines a time to deliver eventinformation as a reminder based on the necessary travel time which iscalculated in the step S282 (step S284). Further, it is determinedwhether the calculated delivery time is earlier than the current time,that is, whether the current time is already past the delivery time(step S286). If the current time is already past the delivery time, theinformation delivery apparatus 120 ends the process. Alternatively, theinformation delivery apparatus 120 may return to the step S280 andrepeat the processing of calculating a delivery time based on newlytransmitted location information.

On the other hand, if the delivery time is the current time or later,that is, if the current time is not yet past the delivery time in thestep S286, the information delivery apparatus 120 waits until thedelivery time which is determined by the step S284 (step S288) and thentransmits event information as a reminder to the information receivingapparatus 140 at the delivery time (step S290). After that, theinformation delivery apparatus 120 returns to the step S280 and repeatsthe processing of calculating a delivery time based on newly transmittedlocation information. Alternatively, it may end the process once it hastransmitted a reminder in the step S290, so that the reminder is nottransmitted a plurality of times.

In such a process, a reminder can be transmitted in time for an eventtime based on a current location of a user. This allows a user to remindthe event even if the user has received event information before butforgets it just before the event. Further, because a reminder istransmitted at such a time that a user can come to an event in time, auser who intends to come to the event can come to the event without failby the reminder. This further increases the advertising effects of eventinformation which is notified in advance.

Although the information delivery apparatus 120 delivers a reminder atan appropriate time according to the current location of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 in the fifth embodiment described above, theinformation receiving apparatus 140 which receives event information maypresent a reminder to a user at an appropriate time based on itslocation information.

Sixth Embodiment

A sixth embodiment of the present invention describes an example of theinformation delivery system in which the information receiving apparatus140 accumulates event information which is delivered from theinformation delivery apparatus 120 and notifies the event information toa user as a reminder just before an event time. FIG. 15 is a functionalblock diagram showing a schematic configuration of the informationreceiving apparatus 140 according to the sixth embodiment. In FIG. 15,the functional portions which correspond to those shown in FIG. 3 aredenoted by the same reference numerals, and the description of those areomitted as appropriate in order to avoid redundant description. Theinformation delivery apparatus 120 according to this embodiment hassubstantially the same configuration and functions as the informationdelivery apparatus 120 according to the fourth embodiment describedabove and thus not described in detail herein.

As shown in FIG. 15, the information receiving apparatus 140 accordingto the sixth embodiment further includes a travel time calculatingportion 158 and a display time determining portion 160 in addition tothe elements of the information receiving apparatus 140 according to thefirst embodiment shown in FIG. 3. The information receiving apparatus140 of this embodiment accumulates event information which is receivedat given timing from the information delivery apparatus 120 and displaysthe accumulated event information as a reminder at the latest possibletime before an event time. Further, the information receiving apparatus140 determines a time to display event information by checking itscurrent location and calculating a time needed to travel from thecurrent location to the event place, so that a user who views thereminder can reach the event place by the event time.

The travel time calculating portion 158 receives location informationindicating a current location which is periodically acquired by thelocation information acquiring portion 142 and calculates a travel timefrom the place that is indicated by the location information to an eventplace that is included in event information. The processing ofcalculating a travel time is the same as the processing performed by thetravel time calculating portion 136 of the information deliveryapparatus 120 according to the fifth embodiment described above and thusnot described in detail herein.

The display time determining portion 160 determines a time to displayevent information (reminder) on the display portion 150 based on thetravel time which is calculated by the travel time calculating portion158 and the event time. The display time determining portion 160according to this embodiment is an example of an output time determiningportion of the present invention, and the display portion 150 is anexample of an event information output portion of the present invention.The processing of determining a display time is substantially the sameas the processing of determining a delivery time which is performed bythe delivery time determining portion 138 of the information deliveryapparatus 120 according to the fifth embodiment described above and thusnot described in detail herein. At a determined display time, thedisplay time determining portion 160 reads out the event informationstored in the event information storage portion 152 and displays theevent information on the display portion 150.

Referring next to FIG. 16, a reminder display process in the case ofusing the information receiving apparatus 140 of FIG. 15 is describedhereinafter. FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a flow of a reminder displayprocess which is executed by the information delivery system 100according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.

First, the information receiving apparatus 140 receives eventinformation from the information delivery apparatus 120 and stores itinto the event information storage portion 152 (step S300). Next, thelocation information acquiring portion 142 acquires location informationindicating its current location from the GPS satellite 12 or the basestation 14 (step S302).

Then, the travel time calculating portion 158 calculates a time neededto travel from the current location of the information receivingapparatus 140 which is acquired in the step S302 to an event placeincluded in the event information which is stored in the eventinformation storage portion 152 (step S304). Further, the display timedetermining portion 160 determines a time to display the eventinformation as a reminder based on the necessary travel time which iscalculated in the step S304 (step S306).

Then, it is determined whether the calculated display time is earlierthan the current time, that is, whether the current time is already pastthe display time (step S308). If the current time is already past thedisplay time, the information receiving apparatus 140 ends the reminderdisplay process. Alternatively, the information receiving apparatus 140may return to the step S302 and repeat the processing of calculating areminder display time based on newly acquired location information.

On the other hand, if the display time is the current time or later,that is, if the current time is not yet past the display time in thestep S308, the information receiving apparatus 140 waits until thedisplay time which is determined by the step S306 (step S310) and, atthe display time, reads out the event information from the eventinformation storage portion 152 and displays it on the display portion150 (step S312). After that, the information receiving apparatus 140returns to the step S302 and repeats the processing of calculating areminder display time based on newly acquired location information.Alternatively, it may end the process so that a reminder is notdisplayed a plurality of times for the event information for which thereminder has been displayed once.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described inthe foregoing with reference to the drawings, the present invention isnot limited thereto. It should be understood by those skilled in the artthat various modifications, combinations, sub-combinations andalterations may occur depending on design requirements and other factorsinsofar as they are within the scope of the appended claims or theequivalents thereof.

1. An information delivery apparatus comprising: a receiving portion toreceive location information and date and time information of at leastone mobile communication terminal, the location information indicatingat least one past location of the at least one mobile communicationterminal, the at least one past location being different from a currentlocation of the at least one mobile communication terminal, the date andtime information indicating a past date and time at which the at leastone mobile communication terminal was present at the at least one pastlocation; an event information storage portion to store eventinformation including an event place, an event date, and an event timeof an event; a delivery terminal selecting portion to select a mobilecommunication terminal to which the event information is to be deliveredbased on the location information and the date and time informationreceived by the receiving portion and on the event place, the eventdate, and the event time; and an event information delivery portion todeliver the event information stored in the event information storageportion to the mobile communication terminal selected by the deliveryterminal selecting portion, wherein the delivery terminal selectingportion is configured to select the mobile communication terminal basedon the at least one past location indicated by the location informationbeing within a predetermined range defined depending on the event placeand the past date and time being before the event date and time.
 2. Theinformation delivery apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:an attribute information storage portion to store attribute informationof a user of the mobile communication terminal, wherein the deliveryterminal selecting portion is configured to select the mobilecommunication terminal based on the attribute information being relatedto the event information from the mobile communication terminal.
 3. Theinformation delivery apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thedelivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select at most apredetermined number of mobile communication terminals.
 4. Theinformation delivery apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thedelivery terminal selecting portion is configured to select a pluralityof mobile communication terminals having past locations within thepredetermined range defined depending on the event place, each pastlocation having corresponding past date and time, and wherein theplurality of mobile communication terminals are selected in increasingorder based on time length from the corresponding past date and time tothe event date and time.
 5. The information delivery apparatus accordingto claim 1, wherein the delivery terminal selecting portion isconfigured to select the mobile communication terminal only if adistance between a current location of the mobile communication terminaland the event place does not exceed a predetermined value.
 6. Theinformation delivery apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thedelivery terminal selecting portion is configured to calculate a traveltime from a current location of the mobile communication terminal to theevent place and select the mobile communication terminal only if thecalculated travel time is not longer than an interval between a currenttime and the event time.
 7. An information receiving apparatuscomprising: a location information acquiring portion to acquire locationinformation indicating a location of the information receivingapparatus; a location information storage portion to accumulate andstore a plurality of pieces of location information acquired over timeby the location information acquiring portion and, for each piece oflocation information, a date and time at which the piece of locationinformation was acquired, wherein at least one piece of locationinformation indicates a past location of the information receivingapparatus that is different from a current location of the informationreceiving apparatus; an event information receiving portion to receiveevent information including an event place, an event date and an eventtime of an event; and an event information selecting portion to selectevent information of which a user is to be notified based on the atleast one piece of location information and corresponding date and timeand on the event place, the event date and the event time included inthe event information, wherein the event information selecting portionis configured to select the event information based on the past locationindicated by the at least one piece of location information being withina predetermined range defined depending on the event place and the dateand time corresponding to the at least one piece of location informationbeing before the event date and time.
 8. The information receivingapparatus according to claim 7, further comprising: an attributeinformation storage portion to store attribute information of a user,wherein the event information selecting portion is configured to selectthe event information based on the event information being related tothe attribute information.
 9. The information receiving apparatusaccording to claim 7, wherein the event information selecting portion isconfigured to select the event information only if a distance between acurrent location of the information receiving apparatus and the eventplace does not exceed a predetermined value.
 10. The informationreceiving apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the event informationselecting portion is configured to calculate a travel time from acurrent location of the information receiving apparatus to the eventplace and is configured to select the event information only if thecalculated travel time is not longer than an interval between a currenttime and the event time.
 11. An information delivery method comprising:receiving location information and date and time information of at leastone mobile communication terminal, the location information indicatingat least one past location of the at least one mobile communicationterminal, the at least one past location being different from a currentlocation of the at least one mobile communication terminal, the date andtime information indicating a past date and time at which the at leastone mobile communication terminal was present at the at least one pastlocation; selecting a mobile communication terminal to which eventinformation about an event is to be delivered based on the locationinformation and the date and time information received in the receivingstep and on an event place, an event date, and an event time of theevent; and delivering the event information to the mobile communicationterminal selected in the act of selecting, wherein the mobilecommunication terminal is selected in the selecting step based on the atleast one past location indicated by the location information beingwithin a predetermined range defined depending on the event place andthe past date and time being before the event date and time.
 12. Aninformation receiving method comprising: acquiring location informationindicating a location of an information receiving apparatus; storing,into a storage medium, a plurality of pieces of location informationacquired over time and, for each piece of location information, a dateand time at which the piece of location information was acquired,wherein at least one piece of location information indicates a pastlocation of the information receiving apparatus that is different from acurrent location of the information receiving apparatus; receiving eventinformation including an event place, an event date, and an event timeof an event; and selecting the event information of which a user is tobe notified based on the at least one piece of location information andcorresponding date and time stored in the storage medium and on theevent place, the event date, and the event time included in the eventinformation, wherein the event information is selected in the selectingstep if the past location indicated by the at least one piece oflocation information stored in the storage medium is within apredetermined range defined depending on the event place and the dateand time corresponding to the at least one piece of location informationare before the event date and time.
 13. An information delivery systemincluding at least one information receiving apparatus that acquires andsupplies location information and an information delivery apparatus thatdelivers event information based on the location information supplied bythe information receiving apparatus, the information delivery apparatuscomprising: a receiving portion to receive location information and dateand time information of the at least one information receivingapparatus, the location information indicating at least one pastlocation of the at least one information receiving apparatus, the atleast one past location being different from a current location of theat least one information receiving apparatus, the date and timeinformation indicating a past date and time at which the at least oneinformation receiving apparatus was present at the at least one pastlocation; an event information storage portion to store eventinformation including an event place, an event date, and an event timeof an event; a delivery terminal selecting portion to select aninformation receiving apparatus to which the event information is to bedelivered based on the location information and the date and timeinformation received by the receiving portion and on the event place,the event date, and the event time; and an event information deliveryportion to deliver the event information stored in the event informationstorage portion to the information receiving apparatus selected by thedelivery terminal selecting portion, wherein the delivery terminalselecting portion is configured to select the information receivingapparatus based on the at least one past location indicated by thelocation information being within a predetermined range defineddepending on the event place and the past date and time being before theevent date and time.
 14. An information delivery system including aninformation receiving apparatus that acquires and accumulates locationinformation and an information delivery apparatus that delivers eventinformation about an event to the information receiving apparatus, theinformation receiving apparatus comprising: a location informationacquiring portion to acquire location information indicating a locationof the information receiving apparatus; a location information storageportion to accumulate and store a plurality of pieces of locationinformation acquired over time by the location information acquiringportion and, for each piece of location information, a date and time atwhich the piece of location information was acquired, wherein at leastone piece of location information indicates a past location of theinformation receiving apparatus that is different from a currentlocation of the information receiving apparatus; an event informationreceiving portion to receive event information delivered by theinformation delivery apparatus, the event information including an eventplace, an event date, and an event time of the event; and an eventinformation selecting portion to select the event information of which auser is to be notified based on the past location indicated by the atleast one piece of location information and corresponding date and timestored in the location information storage portion and on the eventplace, the event date, and the event time included in the eventinformation, wherein the event information selecting portion isconfigured to select the event information based on the at least onepiece of location information stored in the location information storageportion being within a predetermined range defined depending on theevent place and the date and time corresponding to the at least onepiece of location information being before the event date and time. 15.The information delivery method according to claim 11, furthercomprising: determining whether a distance between a current location ofthe mobile communication terminal and the event place exceeds apredetermined value; and selecting the mobile communication terminalonly if the distance between the current location of the mobilecommunication terminal and the event place does not exceed thepredetermined value.
 16. The information delivery method according toclaim 11, further comprising: calculating a travel time from a currentlocation of the mobile communication terminal to the event place; andselecting the mobile communication terminal only if the calculatedtravel time is not longer than an interval between a current time andthe event time.
 17. The information receiving method according to claim12, further comprising: determining whether the distance between thecurrent location of the information receiving apparatus and the eventplace exceeds a predetermined value; and selecting the event informationonly if the distance between the current location of the informationreceiving apparatus and the event place does not exceed thepredetermined value.
 18. The information receiving method according toclaim 12, further comprising: calculating a travel time from the currentlocation of the information receiving apparatus to the event place; andselecting the event information only if the calculated travel time isnot longer than an interval between a current time and the event time.